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I can't believe that I wrote July on the heading of this months column. I'm still waiting for the rains to stop and spring to begin. If we had any spring at all this year it must have come on a Tuesday and I was at work. Sorry that I missed it. The heated garage has been so moist inside that I noticed that the 914 steering wheel has mold on it. That's in part because a '76 914 came with a leather wrapped wheel as part of the Appearance Group. No such option list for the early cars (those with drum brakes). While it was said that even in the '50's the factory would "let you have it your way", there were very few bathtubs that came in to the country with more that a few options. US Bumpers and sealed headlights were listed on the Kardex as an option but every car imported in the '50's came so equipped. The longest list of options that I've ever seen on any 356 came on a Speedster that my brother Bill has in his garage. Purchased by him in the late '60's he only just this year got the Certificate of Authenticity. Speedsters were the base models if you will with the intent of keeping the price down to attract those Karmann Ghia buyers I suppose. The list on Bill's Speedster (83946) is as follows: Nardi wood steering wheel Left turn signal switch (to replace light flash lost to wood wheel) Armrest Cigar/cigarette lighter Ashtray Backrest (for rear jump seats) Windscreen washer system Coupe seats Tonneau cover Chrome wheels (4 1/2 X 15) Luggage rack Sealed - beam headlights U.S. speedometer Stone guards for headlights 'Ponto Stabil' mirror, left and right U.S. bumpers Roof rack straps Everything is still in place except for the luggage rack, which was taken off by a previous owner, the coupe seats, which Bill replaced, and the roof rack straps, which we have been unable to identify. The thought is that the straps were just part of the luggage rack but we're not really sure. It certainly wasn't part of a rack that goes on the roof of a Speedster since their convertible top frames were barely able to support the single thickness fabric that covered it. I have come across some strange factory options on various cars. Electric radio antennas were not that unusual in the '50's but how about one that has the motor mounted up under the drivers rocker panel about 3 feet from the antenna itself. That would be the mounting place for a 356. That was a Hirshmann unit that was also installed on some Mercedes cars including the 300SL Gullwing coupe. Porsche offered a "lowered drivers seat" in the early '60's that was just a regular seat with about 2 inches of padding taken out of the seat. Very clever, almost Detroit like marketing. Everyone knows that the 356A cabriolet had an optional hardtop offered but few know that it was also offered with a manual sunroof. When electric sunroofs were offered in Nov 1959 it was possible to order your hardtop with an electric sunroof installed. We had a '64 C Cab show up at a Concours that we held at the old Carling Brewing plant on Rt. 9 back in the '70's. The owner showed us how easy it was to unplug the connectors and take off his sunroof hardtop. Very impressive. All the sunroofs were made by a European company by the name of Golde and installed at the factory. When I used to hang around the VW dealer in Orlando as a kid I read all the brochures they had and could never understand why some one would want a gold sunroof on their new Porsche. It wasn't until I finally saw one in a car a few years later that I realized that Golde was not the color but the manufacturer. I thought the Germans just spelled the color gold with an e, like the British and their spelling for tyre. A gauge mounted to the right of the glove box was offered that would display the outside temperature. Very upscale. It was about the same time that Rover (the car not the dog) advertised that their cars were equipped with a low temperature warning light. They mounted a sensor on the front bumper that would turn on a red warning light whenever the outside temperature went below freezing. A safety feature to warn the driver that what looked like a puddle could really be an ice patch. Porsche owners turned their noses up at the ads, telling all that would listen that we had a full-scale gauge available for years, where had they been? Of course we turned our noses up at a lot of things automotive back in those days. Looking back with the perspective of time, it all seems a little silly now. Like today, every Porsche came with an extensive tool kit. It was said that you could pull an engine and replace a clutch on the side of the road with a 356-tool kit. My early attempts at that job looked like a bomb had gone off in the Sears tool Dept. with more that a few tool kits scattered all over the garage floor. Those original tool kits are today worth more that some of the cars sold for used. At least the cars I used to buy. Another seldom seen option was what Porsche called a travel kit. That contained parts that would actually be needed to do a roadside repair. Such as a clutch cable, spark plugs, generator belt, fuses, points and condenser. If you don't know what the last two items are don't worry about it. Those were electrical parts that we had back when we were still using vacuum tubes in radios. Don't know what a vacuum tube is? Never mind. The only place I ever saw a travel kit was in a brochure or at a modern swap meet. Never saw one years ago. I think that most owners were so convinced of the reliability of these cars that they didn't see the need for the kit. Almost like modern day cars. Of course our tool and travel kits today are a AAA card and a cell phone. My how things have changed. I was going to add that things were so much simpler back then but now that I think about it the cell and card are pretty simple but Keep The Faith anyway. |
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